LOS ANGELES - Abner Mares wanted a challenge when he agreed to fight Anselmo Moreno and a challenge is what he received.

Mares, the WBC super bantamweight champion, went through a 12-round rugged fight against Moreno, eventually retaining his title with a unanimous decision in front of a crowd of 6,341 at Staples Center on Saturday night.

Judges David Sutherland and Marty Denkin saw the fight close, scoring it 116-110, but James Jen Kin scored the fight 120-106, giving every round to Mares (25-0-1).

Moreno is one of the more elusive fighters and his difficult style caused some trouble for Mares throughout the fight.

Mares, however, was the aggressor, spending most of the fight chasing Moreno down. Mares would scored a knockdown in the fifth round and in the 11th, Moreno was deducted a point for holding.

Moreno, who moved up from bantamweight for the fight, agreed that Mares was the better fighter on the night.

“He fought a great fight,” Moreno said. “He’s a great champion. He’s strong and I got caught by his shots.”

The future for Moreno involves him going back down to bantamweight where he is the WBA champion.

For Mares, he has only one fight on his mind and that’s with WBO champion Nonito Donaire, however, with Mares being promoted by Golden Boy and Donaire with Top Rank, it might take an intervention to get that fight sign because of the animosity between the two promotional companies.

“That’s the fight we want,” Mares’ manager Frank Espinoza Sr. said earlier this week. “He (Mares) has proven everything and he has fought the best. That’s the only fight we want.

“The situation between the two promoters is a tough situation. But this is the fight the fans want, everybody wants it. We’re going to stay stern on our position and we only want to fight Donaire.”

In the co-main event, Leo Santa Cruz (22-0-1) retained his IBF bantamweight title with his ninth-round demolition of Victor Zaleta.

Santa Cruz, who is one of the best pressure fighters, swarmed Zaleta from the outset, scoring knockdowns in the fourth and seventh.

"I definitely felt his power," Zaleta said.

In the ninth, after all of the punishment that he endured, Zaleta went down from a straight right and referee Ray Corona stopped the fight.

“He was blocking my shots at first, but I kept working and he opened up,” Santa Cruz said. “He was a strong fighter. He made this a fight. I was working the head and the body and I finally caught him and he went down.”

Alfredo Angulo made his triumphant return to the ring with a first-round knockout of Raul Casarez in their junior middleweight fight.

Angulo (21-2) ended the night with a left hook that caught Casarez (19-3) square on the chin, dropping him to the canvas, forcing referee Jose Cobian to stop the fight 56 seconds into the round.

Cobian stopped his count at seven, before stopping the fight.

For Angulo, who spent eight months in an immigration detention center before being released in August, said it was an emotional night for him.

“I had so much emotion on my ring walk, that I wanted to cry,” he said. “I had a lot of pressure on me, but I knew that I could get through it. I knew the dog was going to come back.”

There is a possibility of Angulo returning to the ring next month.

On the undercard, Nathan Cleverly, in his U.S. debut, successfully retained his WBO light heavyweight title with his eighth-round stoppage victory over Shawn Hawk.

Cleverly (25-0) had little trouble with tenacious Hawk (22-3-1), dropping him twice in the seventh and twice more in the eighth, before referee Tony Crebs finally stopped the fight at 1:53 of the round.

“He (Hawk) was a tough opponent, but eventually I broke him down and I got the victory,” Cleverly said. “I set up the fight to be fast strong and exciting. I like to take risks and sometimes you get caught, but this is boxing, it is a combat sport. It all depends on how you respond to those shots.”

Cleverly is now eyeing a potential fight with Bernard Hopkins next year.

Also on the undercard, rising junior welterweight prospect Antonio Orozco improved to 16-0 with his sixth-round knockout victory over Danny Escobar of Riverside.

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